India ask US, EU to show leadership in Doha talks

PTI|

May 16, 2008, 04.54 PM IST

0Comments

NEW DELHI: India on Friday said the multilateral negotiations on Doha Round are poised at a delicate stage and their conclusion will depend on the beneficiaries of the previous WTO agreements willing to make contributions for a new trade deal.

"Major trading nations such as the US and the EU have to display leadership and not lay the onus for the Round's success only on developing members," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said in a statement here, days before release of the fresh negotiating texts for agriculture and industrial goods.

He said the Doha Round negotiations are "delicately poised". The future course would depend on "whether the member countries that have hitherto largely enjoyed the gains of trade liberalisation are willing to make their legitimate contributions to fulfill the core objective of the Round, which has been termed a Development Round."

He said in the absence of developed countries willing to contribute, the negotiations may move into the eighth year from its start.

Nath said if the Round fails to deliver on its development promise and gets converted into yet another market access for the wealthier nations, efforts by India and many other developing countries to conclude it within the next few months, "will not have much chance of success."

Focusing on agriculture, which lies at the core of the Doha Round, Nath said that it was vital for India to first secure the livelihoods of its poor and vulnerable farmers before it could move on to any other issue.